Product description

""The Best American Science Writing" series has been hailed as, contemporary science's best answers to ...eternal riddles". ("Fortune"); "praised for its breadth - It is rare to be offered such a diverse collection of science writing, ("Nature"); and appreciated for its intelligence and insight - The entire spectrum of science is covered with literary acumen here". ("Booklist"). Provocative and engaging, this latest entry in the series covers the full spectrum of scientific inquiry - from biochemistry, physics, and astronomy, to genetics, evolutionary theory, and cognition. Edited by "The New York Times" bestselling author and award-winning science writer Rebecca Skloot and her father, award-winning writer and poet Floyd Skloot, "The Best American Science Writing 2011" features articles from a wide variety of publications, providing a comprehensive overview of the year's most compelling, relevant, and exciting scientific developments.

Author information

Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and elsewhere. Her debut book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, became an instant New York Times bestseller. It was chosen as a best book of 2010 by more than sixty major media outlets, and is being adapted into an HBO film by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball. Floyd Skloot is a writer of creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. He has received three Pushcart Prizes and a PEN USA Literary Award, among other honors. He is the author of seventeen books, and his work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Beverly Hallberg. Jesse Cohen is a writer and freelance editor. He lives in New York City.

Review quote

"The perfect gateway to the wider world of modern science in all its variety and wonder. The writing is engaging and perfectly suited to readers of any interest level... The Best American Science Writing 2011 provides a brilliantly brief glimpse into that fascinating world." -- San Francisco Book Review "By drawing from a wide variety of sources, mainstream (The New York Times, Playboy, Vanity Fair) and niche (Discover, Columbia Journalism Review, and science blogs), the [2011] anthology both provokes and inspires." -- Publishers Weekly "The list of impressive guest editors over the years--including Oliver Sacks, James Gleick, Atul Gawande and Jerome Groopman--is joined this year by a father and daughter... Rebecca Skloot (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) teams with her father Floyd, a past contributor to the series...Literate, nontechnical popular science." -- Kirkus Reviews